About Me

About ALRDLT

Good morrow and welcome to our weblog. Here at Act Like Romans, Dress Like Turks, we do neither. Instead, we write about our passions which are mostly music related, but film, literature and even pop culture may sometimes slip into the mix. Post regularity is at the whim of the writers, and can be about anything at anytime. Here are some general categories you may find on our blog:

Musical Revue - The same thing as a "review" but spelled this way to reflect our nerdy affinity to musical theatre. Sometimes we will "revue" an entire album. Sometimes only a single track. Whatever time and resources allow. Whatever you do, do not take our word on the quality of the material. Go out and see about this music for yourself.

Tracks of All Ages - Just because it's classic doesn't mean it's old. Just because it's inspiring doesn't mean it's brand new. Just because it's floating in the void between "hall of fame" and "next big thing" doesn't mean it's irrelevant. Age is but a number, so every now and again we'll feature a handful of tracks that float our proverbial boat. Whether they be brand new, 30 years old, or they were popular for 3 weeks in the winter of 2006, we love them dearly. And that's what counts.

It's A-Live!!! - Every now and again, we step out of our hidey hole and find ourselves standing, in front of a stage, a stage with people on it, people with instruments, instruments that make sounds, sounds that make music. Do we like what we see? You'll have to read to find out. Enjoy our quirkily critical analysis of live shows accompanied by our high quality photos, usually taken with a cellular phone of some sort. High class.

The MP3's posted to this site are bait in the water. Please bite the hook and visit the band's websites, buy their CD's, T-shirts, posters and button sets, and by all means necessary, see them play live. The music we post is only meant to help. But if it is your music and you are under the impression that it hurts, email us at romansturks@gmail.com and we will take it down post-haste.

If you have some music that we need to hear, please send it to us. We will never turn down free music. However, we do prefer hard copy. Actual, physical CD's that we can touch, smell and taste. What's our postal address? Email us to find out - romansturks@gmail.com

Blogodex

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Tracks Of All Ages - Vol. I

"My Drag" by Squirrel Nut Zippers, from the album "Perennial Favorites" (1998) - The punk rockers of the mid-90's swing revival released their finest work to date in 1998: "Perennial Favorites." This bona fide masterpiece is chocked full of flavors from big band to blues, from gypsy jazz to klezmer, from dixie to tango, and a little acid-trip/dream-sequence circus serenade thrown in for texture. One of the shining stars in this stratospheric LP is track 7, "My Drag." When you put Katharine Whalen's smooth, seductive, Billie-Holiday-back-from-the-grave vocals together with a tango bridge full of bari sax beef and end it all with a double-time klezmer finale driven by the masterful violin chops of Andrew Bird, you've quite simply got one of the best songs of that decade, swing revival or otherwise.

"Dust In Her Eyes" by Fay Wray, from the album "Tug Love" (2008) - Although some may criticize this synthed-out, heart-pumping, hard-rocking dance number as being out of place on an album largely populated by piano-rock, jazz, and even R&B influences, my only criticism is that I can't get enough of it, and CD's tend to scratch over time when you play the same track over and over again. "Vicious! / Oh, my baby is an animal ? / Don't ya know she is a cannibal / And she's looking for a fix," screams singer Kevin Corcoran at the onset of this four-to-the-floor anthem to violence and horror. Brilliant! As far as cohesiveness goes, the track's ukulele intro and jazzy/funky interludes between verse/chorus sets is just enough to make it fit with the rest of "Tug Love."

"New York City Cops" by The Strokes, from the album "Is This It?" (UK Version, 2001) - Snagged from the U.S. version shortly before its release in October '01 because of certain lyrical insults to the intelligence of the NYPD seeming insensitive to the recent 9/11 attacks, this pure rock gem quickly became everyone's favorite underground hit and a standard encore at The Strokes' live shows. With its ominous tribal drum call/guitar feedback intro rolling right into a riff that won't leave your head for days, "Cops" squeezes all the rock it can out of its 3 1/2 minute life span. And the climax where the band explodes out of a 4-bar drum break and Julian wails "I'm leaving, 'cause this just won't work / They act like Romans, but they dress like Turks," is an especially powerful moment when you see it live.

"Mansard Roof" by Vampire Weekend, from the album "Vampire Weekend" (2008) - As if enough hasn't already been written about this New York quartet, I still feel the need to explain why this songs makes me quite glad. The only reason "Mansard Roof" pulls ahead of "One (Blake's Got a New Face)" as best track on their self-titled album is because its a shining example of the perfect album opener. Within the first 30 seconds, you get bright and bubbly organ, percussive, Afro-cuban rhythms, Ezra Koenig's clean and crisp vocals floating through the scale with Mozart-esque grace, and the sublime string arrangements of keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij. And this is only the intro. By the time rhythm section Christopher Tomson and Chris Baio take over, you're already addicted. "Mansard Roof" successfully introduces you to every element you can expect from the rest of the album without giving away any of the surprises, and its "opener" personality is so predominant, that even on the best of mix CD's, there's no place for it but track 1.

"Flash" by Queen, from the album "Flash Gordon" (1980) - So let's forget for a moment that this is a theme song to a science fiction adventure film and look at it under the microscope of "sampling genius." There are two versions of this tune: the album version, which is the version that is actually heard in the film with the first scene's dialog, and the single version which samples dialog from the entire film (and with impeccable timing and style, I might add). Considering the latter, this track can be viewed as a huge source of inspiration for the sampling habits of later artists like Fat Boy Slim, DJ Shadow, 808 State, and The Wiseguys. I won't go so far to make a controversial statement like, "best Queen song ever," but there's one thing I will say: "Flash, I love you, but we only have 14 hours to save the Earth!"